Unlocking Growth: Leveraging Long-term Leases Over Private Land For Business Development

For over 15 years, interested parties have been permitted to establish long-term leases on privately owned construction land for investment and building purposes. This opportunity for business expansion was formalised in 2008 with the Construction Land Act, following the adoption of the first Macedonian Construction Act, which prescribed long-term leasing as a legal basis for obtaining building permits.

With this, Macedonia established a unique system for regulating real estate relations, significantly different from the legislation in neighbouring countries. However, is this system being utilised effectively and contributing to development?

Years later, long-term leasing of state-owned construction land remains preferred to that established over privately owned land. But it is hardly popular. Statistics indicate that, regardless of ownership type, leases over construction land comprised only 1 % of registered leases in 2015 and rose slightly to 3 % by 2020.